Eastern time makes sense for St. Joseph County

December 04, 2005

The Tribune continues to print expressions of personal opinion regarding the question of the right time zone for St. Joseph County -- including one last Thursday from the newspaper's own columnist, Nancy Sulok. It ought to be apparent to everyone by now that we welcome all views. In order to receive a fair share of ink, an opinion need not agree with the Editorial Board's. The time zone issue is a good example of that. For the record, we do want to make the position of The Tribune's Editorial Board clear again. This region -- not only the Michiana Area Council of Governments counties of Elkhart, Kosciusko, Marshall and St. Joseph, but also southwestern Michigan -- needs to be in the same time zone. MACOG is important. A time split in the four-county economic development zone would be frustrating and confusing. It is clear that Elkhart County will not petition the U.S. Department of Transportation to change to Central time. Michigan won't, either. It would be unacceptable for St. Joseph County to be a Central time "peninsula" surrounded by Michigan, Marshall County and Elkhart County. Therefore, the DOT should rescind its approval of St. Joseph County's Central time petition. What if we could have anything we want? All of Michigan and all of Indiana on Central time, to be in accord with Chicago, would be very appealing. But that is not an option. Of the choices that St. Joseph County does have, unity with those to the north, south and east is by far the most sensible. Much of the current discord could have been prevented. Once daylight-saving time was approved by the Indiana General Assembly, Gov. Mitch Daniels should have taken county preferences under advisement and then made a recommendation to the DOT on behalf of the state. He didn't. Instead, the counties that chose to do so petitioned the DOT individually, with Daniels saying he'd support county preferences. The governor promised too much. When St. Joseph County's choice of Central was approved, Republican Daniels found himself faced with asking the DOT to rescind its approval. That is a factor in the time zone dispute becoming a partisan issue. Area Democratic officials certainly have made the most of the fracture. So, yes, the DOT should rescind its initial approval of Central time for St. Joseph County. Not for political reasons, but for economic and practical reasons.